Frogspawn and Urban Foxes

Life has settled back to "normal" here, after we enjoyed a few days of visiting and touring with my brother David and his wife Frieda who so wonderfully decided to visit us and Ireland. Dave can't resist a driving challenge so they rented a car, which was certainly great for getting to some places we otherwise couldn't have seen without riding in a bus, which I don't really enjoy much, despite my commitment to public transport. The only thing that feels different now is that there's an edge to our normality, as our departure from Northern Ireland is coming up in just over a month and I have so much to accomplish before then with my work and also with shedding and organizing our possessions so that we can fit our lives into a few backpacks once again.

The weather during D&F's visit was very cold but mostly clear and this week it has warmed up and clouded over again. The daffodils are blooming in everyone's front gardens and flower pots, and there is a spectacular tree covered in pink blossoms on the Bryansburn road. The other morning while I was cooking eggs and sausage rolls for our breakfast, Reed came running into the kitchen from the deck, demanding that I come see the frogs in the backyard pond. "There's at least 5 or 6 or them!" he claimed. I wasn't sure I believed him but sure enough, there they were, with just their slick heads and wary eyes above the surface of the water, watching us, six, no seven, no wait, eight, nine! of them. They ranged in size from 3 to 4 inches in length not including their legs and big webbed feet. Reed also observed when he was watching them later that they were getting on each other's backs, like in his book about pond life, so that means they're laying eggs to have babies. He also said he counted 19 of them later and I'm inclined to believe him. I noted to Walt that if we were starving we could certainly eat frogs' legs. I wonder how Reed would react to that. I have eaten them before in my life but haven't had the heart to once I saw that Far Side cartoon of the legless frogs wheeling themselves around (was it out the door of a French restaurant?) in little wheelchairs.

Foie gras has become the animal cruelty issue of the moment here in Europe, apparently slightly behind the United States; I've written my opinion about this before, since protestors targeted the fabulous French restaurant in my hometown a couple years ago, and tend to agree that while foie gras is delicious and a rare delicacy, it's kind of hard on the birds. But if they're concerned about bird welfare how I wish they would tackle the issue of battery-farmed (or CAFO - confined animal feeding operations) chickens that are sold so cheaply in grocery stores. Talk about animal cruelty on a massive scale.

This morning a mangy young fox appeared in the back yard after breakfast, cleaning up the chicken bones and scraps that we'd left out the night before which had mostly already disappeared last night. He didn't appear to see Reed and I watching from the kitchen doors and he stopped frequently to shake his ears and the rest of his body miserably, obviously suffering. He didn't look very skinny, just half-naked, with his hindquarters scaly and missing all that usually lovely fox fur. He spent about 10 minutes checking out every corner of the yard to make sure he hadn't missed anything to eat, or maybe to mark. We have seen another one that seems healthier and we hope both of them make it. They do appreciate it when we have chicken - free range, of course!

More about our winter field trips with Dave and Frieda in my next posts.